This latest work features characters chasing after fresh starts, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. Chris Kraus repeatedly invokes the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her individual reinvention, because this seems a new kind of book – fact-based, genuinely novelistic. Yet it reveals itself to be laden with the familiar conflicts and styles as her previous works.
From Unplanned Author to Renowned Book
Kraus was originally an artist who entered the literary world almost accidentally with her 1997 groundbreaking book I Love Dick, made up of missives to a distant beloved, converting intimate women's literature from self-debasement into assassination. She kept producing books, but the three subsequent engaging and challenging novels missed the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style infused into the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her position as a maverick maker who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on housing investments. It is logical that she presently aims to experiment with different types of content, turning outward to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that current political era turns intimate literature obsolete.
Several Eras, Shared Inescapable History
The Four Spent the Day Together is structured in three parts, spanning multiple eras – all unable to escape their backgrounds. The book includes the narrative about a couple named Emma and Jasper, versions of the author's parents, transitioning from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the persona of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the rise of Trump, and her partner struggling with addiction a man named Paul. The third thread involves the narrative of a homicide of one directionless individual by another in a community long abandoned by progressive politics only a short distance from the protagonist's home in the Minnesota countryside.
As a reader fond of polished prose of the sort Kraus herself often avoids, I was seduced by the narrative style of the initial segment.
As a reader who appreciates precise prose of the style that Kraus tends to eschew, I was seduced by the literary tone of the first section. There is a new quality of attentiveness that accommodates small details, like the container that the youthful Catt frees from the ice at the start of the story, assisted by her adored dad. "I found an ice toy!" she exclaims; "a nice toy", he responds, "the nuanced interpretations of terms rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes Emma's story with inquiry and familiarity. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."
Disappointment and Disjunction
I was fated to feel let down when I wished this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus says here that she dislikes the enjoyment those who appreciate polished prose have derived from I Love Dick; she's committed to disjunction, to the unpolished style she shares with her inspiration author Kathy Acker, and the void and recurrence of her earlier works reasserts itself in the middle section. The protagonist is trying to renovate three dozen dilapidated units in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between two different states, failing to help her husband control his drinking. She feels helpless as Paul moves between poorly supported positions as an recovery specialist in a world propelled by the anger and fear that underpins Trump's victory. Multiple pages are devoted about Catt being cancelled on Twitter, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "landlord" on the online encyclopedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. In a moment she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before exiting the region, "she might be able to learn something about an America that her Twitter detractors would be unable to grasp, would overlook entirely".
The Murder Narrative
Then we reach to the actual killing – and the titular day spent by the deceased with the perpetrator and his companions. Kraus has excellent raw material, and details moment by moment what transpired when a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after encountering her on a platform where she offered adult photos. He was hoping for sex but seems amiably to have occupied the day with her companions, wandering about getting his car mended and funding treats and narcotics, before being murdered by Brittney's partner Micah – a youth with psychological issues who has frequently been hospitalised for aggressive outbursts.
Obsession and Unfinished Business
Catt gets obsessed by the narrative, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to Catt seeing herself in her – a similarly gifted, tormented individual going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. The author informs us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The whole section feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par